Yes, you can do that. What you are discussing is a repair installation.Bruce A. Frank said:I have been handed my recently deceased Father In law's computer by my
Mother
in law to get up and running so she may use it for a computer class she
wants
to take. The OEM Cd's are lost. On boot the screen shows . . .missing or
corrupt: \windows\system32\config\system . . . attempt repair by starting
Windows Setup using the original set-up CD-ROM
I have been on the phone with HP for hours trying to find a solution. The
OEM Cd's are no longer available from HP. My question is, if I buy a new
copy
of XP Home will installing that overwrite the missing or corrupt OS files
to
bring the system back to operation? My desire is to restore the system
without loosing data, stored photos and other things stored by my Father
in
law. Will booting from a new copy XP Home, assuming the computer has no
existing damage other than corrupt OS files, restore the computer to its
"look and feel" before it became corrupted?
Jim said:Yes, you can do that. What you are discussing is a repair installation.
However, just in case, you should install the disk into another computer so
that you can backup all of the important files. That procedure protects the
data in case something goes bad. If something can go bad, it will.
Before doing this, read about a repair installation in Help & Support.
Jim
If, and only if, you have copied whatever files you need to another disk.Bruce A. Frank said:OK, I have printed out "Perform a Repair Installation." I have adjusted
the Bios to start with the CD. I have booted from a freshly opened CD of
XP
Home.
The printout says that when I get to the "Welcome setup screen" to press
ENTER and do not press "R" to setup from the Recovery Console. Hit F8 to
accept agreement, then pick the current installation in the box and hit
"R"
to repair windows XP. Problem is, there is no "R" to choose at this point.
Moving on I come to a screen that gives me 5 choices: Format (NTFS) Quick,
Format (FAT) Quick, Format using NTFS, Format Using FAT and finally LEAVE
THE
CURRENT FILE SYSTEM INTACT (NO CHANGE).
That last one is the only choice I have. The next page says: Windows
folder
exists. Continuing will overwrite. . .All files, subfolders, user
accounts,
applications, security and desktop settings for that Windows installation
will be deleted. v. . The "Documents" folder may also be deleted.. Then 3
choices are(1) Press "L" to delete all that stuff and install Windows (2)
Use
a different folder press escape (3) Quit, press F3.
At this point I am about to "Wipe it all." Should I go back and install
from
the recovery console?
Jim said:If, and only if, you have copied whatever files you need to another disk.
Otherwise, copy the files to some other disk using another computer. Once
you have done this, a clean install would be best as I see it.
Jim
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